Cross-country world champion (1986)
Zola Budd became known to the athletics' world in the early eighties when, as a barefooted teenager, she produced one incredible record-breaking performance after another in women's middle distance running.
The shy, slightly built South African-born Briton excelled in distances from the 1,500 metres to the 10,000 metres, but wasn't able to compete internationally because of the apartheid policies of the South African government.
She took a drastic step to realise her ambition of competing in the Olympic Games when she applied for British citizenship on the grounds that she had a British grandfather. The Daily Mail newspaper pushed her case and her application for citizenship was rushed through, allowing her to qualify to represent Britain in the 3,000 metres in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which witnessed her infamous collision with American athlete Mary Decker-Slaney midway through the race. She was disqualified but later reinstated.
She married in 1989 and today is Zola Pieterse, mother of three children.
Photographs: Getty Images
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